Mobile heavy construction equipment such as tractor backhoes, front loader tractors, excavators, and skid steer loaders commonly are equipped with an hydraulic power system which is capable of supplying power to various hydraulically driven implements. Commonly, the dirt scooping or moving bucket of a tractor backhoe or excavator may be removed from such tractor backhoe's or excavator's boom arm. Similarly, the lift bucket of a skid steer loader or of a front loader tractor is commonly removable. In place of such buckets, various auxiliary hydraulically powered implements may be mounted.
Among such auxiliary hydraulically powered implements are implements rotatably driving a wood chipping wheel, blade, or drum; implements rotatably driving concrete cutting wheels, blades or drums; implements rotatably driving grinding wheels, blades, or drums; implements rotatably driving milling wheels, blades, or drums; implements rotatably driving planing wheels, blades, or drums; or implements rotatably driving tined earth tillers. Such implements, when mounted upon the boom arm, or lift arms, as the case may be, of a tractor backhoe, excavator, front loader tractor, or skid steer loader, operatively engage a surface such as a tree stump, a paved road, or bare or sodded ground. In any such application, means are necessary for controlling the depth at which such implements engage such surfaces.
A known depth control means utilizes an hydraulic ram or hydraulic rams for selectively raising and lowering the rotatable member with respect to the surface to be engaged. Typically, such hydraulic rams bias between the rotatable member and a frame which rollably or slidably moves along the surface, or which bias between a mounting plate attached to the boom arm or lift arms, as the case may be, and a cantilevered support arm which suspends the rotatable member. A problem associated with utilizing such hydraulic rams for such depth control is that such hydraulic rams are expensive to install and maintain, such hydraulic rams are subject to excessive wear and breakage, and such hydraulic rams necessitate an additional hydraulic control which is cumbersome for a heavy equipment operator to manipulate.
The instant invention solves the problems outlined above by eliminating hydraulic ram depth control, replacing such rams with a depth controlling rocker.